Welcome to a… quiet edition of Dre’s Race Review, and this edition is a double dip after MotoGP had Round 11 of their Championship at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and look, I’m going to be honest with you here – There isn’t much to talk about here. The RBR is a banker round for Francesco Bagnaia, who dominated the weekend by taking both the Sprint and the Grand Prix with relative ease. So here’s a PURELY Lightning Round edition of the DRR, as I give you a dozen or so short stories from the Austrian GP weekend.
If I was being a SEO sucker I’d call it “10 things we learnt about…” but I can’t be bothered, so here goes:
The Super Lightning Round
Goes without saying, but Francesco Bagnaia was brilliant. He was perfect. In the Sprint, he lead from the front and despite the early counter-attacking pressure from Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez, both of them blinked and made mistakes around him. Jorge Martin cut the chicane at Turn 2 and didn’t lose a second’s worth of time, and as a result, took a Long Lap Penalty. And then Marc Marquez, who was the fastest man on track at the time, dropped it himself at the Turn 3 hairpin. For those who want to rail on Marquez for crashing all the time… sure, if it helps you sleep at night. But this is how he’s always ridden, leading the scoreboard in crashes because his whole game is being able to ride beyond conventional limits. He made a career out of it. *shrugs*
In the Grand Prix, it was more of the same. Bagnaia took the holeshot, withstood the early pressure from Jorge Martin, and then inched the gap out to over a second and a half, with Martin just unable to go with him down the stretch. Marc Marquez was the only other man in the postcode who could have stayed close to him, but a broken valve in his front tyre led to chaos in his grid slot half an hour before the race. They fixed it, but his tire pressure was so slow, he had to brake hard on the warm-up lap to get the pressure up. Just one problem – It locked his front ride-height device. So when he launched his bike, the bike wouldn’t lower, it slowed down his start, and he nearly got collected by a faster moving Frankie Morbidelli into Turn 1. It dropped him to 13th, but a solid comeback through the midfield got him past all the KTM’s and Marco Bezzecchi’s GP23 to finish a comfortable fourth. A shame we never got him mingling in the fight for the win, and it showed…
…Ducati 1-2-3-4 on one of their strongest tracks and the difference in machinery was made ever more clear. 21 seconds separating Bagnaia’s winning bike and sixth place, on a GP24 1-2-3. Man. Look, Bagnaia is brilliant in full flow and virtually unbeatable but it isn’t half dull when he does it. Very Jorge Lorenzo and believe me, I say this as a compliment.
In other news, Franky Morbidelli was now confirmed to be joining VR46 for 2025. Not a huge surprise given Davide Tardozzi confirmed it at the British Grand Prix a fortnight ago, but cool to see nailed it on. More interestingly, it’s only a one-year deal, so VR46 can get out from underneath it if they don’t like what they see. I suspect that may be on hold for Sergio Garcia, who confirmed he’ll be staying at MT Helmets-MSi for 2025. Strange to see the Moto2 Championship contender commit to staying, but I suspect that says more about the state of the market, and the fact Garcia is swimming against a Spanish tide bursting with talent again.
Also, Ai Ogura was confirmed at Trackhouse for 2025 too, with Miguel Oliveira moving out. A sensible move from the American team, despite alleged pressure from outside sources to hire Joe Roberts for commercial reasons. Glad Trackhouse and Davide Brivio made (in my opinion), the correct call. Ogura’s been MotoGP ready for a good two and a half seasons now and has been deserving of the opportunity. And he doesn’t have to ride a Honda, so that’s a huge dub. Let’s see if Somkiat Chantra ends up on the Idemitsu Honda (Don’t get the point behind that, but what do I know?)
Oh and Jake Dixon announced today he’s leaving Aspar to head to MarcVDS for 2025. Interesting move given the Dutch team will be changing to Boscoscuro chassis and they’ve been the hot frame for the last half season or so, it might be a move that could put him in line for a Championship push. Given it’ll be his seventh Moto2 season, he’ll be the 2025 version of Joe Roberts!
Speaking of Moto2, brilliant dominant win by Celestino Vietti, and one has to wonder where the heck that kind of form has been hiding for the last year or so. Garcia only taking two points of Ogura after suffering a broken wrist in a practice crash will be seen as a big missed opportunity. Also, at what point do we ask questions of Fermin Aldeguer, because this run of form lately has been ropey.
Also, David Alonso was once again brilliant in Moto3, despite a Long Lap Penalty, he clawed back the three seconds or so he lost, got to the front of the field and then couldn’t be touched, even with the latest of dives from David Munoz and Dani Holgado who joined him on the podium. A salute to Ivan Ortola as well, who had to start from pitlane and still ended up 9th and just a handful of seconds off the leading group. For me, Veijer, Holgado, himself and Alonso are the class of the field, and Alonso is… all-time great in the class. This was his 11th Moto3 win in the last 380 days, tying the all-time record with Joan Mir. Terrifyingly good.
Dre’s Race Rating: 3/10 (Poor) – Cutting to the chase, this was a poor race. Bagnaia was untouchable once he got out front, and the field was so spread out that racing was virtually impossible unless you were out of position like Marquez was. The Red Bull Ring’s attendance was down 26,000 on last year, which says to me, fans are starting to pick up on the issues with the place and aren’t coming like they were in years past. Not ideal. See you in Aragon.
